New masculinities in universities? Discourses,ambivalence and potential change

In this article, we explore forms and possible implications of new masculinities in universities, and elucidate how they relate to hegemonic masculinity. ‘New masculinities’ coins a particular tradition of naming in Nordic masculinity studies. In the Nordic context, gendered social relations are shaped by State policies and equality discourses, which are increasingly embracing father‐friendly initiatives. New masculinities refers to the increased involvement of men in caring practices and especially in fathering. Our empirical study comprises in‐depth interviews with young male academics in a Finnish business school. We elucidate, first, the ambivalence and struggles between masculinities in the discourses of these men and, second, how the construction of masculinities is specific to societal, sociocultural and local contexts. Relations of class, and middle‐class notions of the ‘good life’ in particular, emerge as central for understanding the experiences of these men. Beyond the Nordic countries, we argue that while the change potential of caring masculinity stems from particular contexts, the concept of new masculinities is helpful in capturing the ambivalence and struggles between hegemonic and caring masculinities rather than dismissing the latter as subordinate to the former.     

“Bringing the migrant back in”: mobility,conflict, and social change in contemporary society

Dominant social theories have rarely placed migration at the center of our understanding of society and social change. Classical theories in the Western tradition have been more preoccupied with the impact of economic and political revolutions on social change, stratification and class conflict, and have paid far less attention to other important aspects of society. Contemporary theories have expanded the theoretical gaze to include a much wider set of issues, from racial and gender divisions to warfare and the environment. In an era of globalization, we argue that such a marginalization of the migrant, and the failure to better integrate both internal and external migration into a more nuanced interpretation of social change, is a significant shortcoming. By examining some of the key elements linked to such human movement in Europe, North America and China -- in the light of five recent studies in this field -- we argue that migration is a vital factor in changing the world as we know it and consequently a central concern for social theory. This is a review essay on:Richard Alba and Nancy Foner. Strangers No More: Immigration and the Challenges of Integration in North America and Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza. US Immigration in the Twenty-First Century: Making Americans, Remaking America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015.Adrian Favell. Immigration, Integration and Mobility: New Agendas in Migration Studies. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015.Zhongshan Yue. Social Integration of Rural-Urban Migrants in China: Current Status, Determinants and Consequences. Singapore: World Scientific Publishers, 2015.Robyn R Iredale and Fei Guo. Handbook of Chinese Migration: Identity and Wellbeing. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015.     

Social class,parental values,and child‐rearing practices in Taiwan

This research examines the relationships among social class, parental values, and child‐rearing practices using data from a recent national survey in Taiwan. Kohn's “self‐direction versus external conformity” hypothesis was not supported, nor was his “intent versus consequence” hypothesis. Data, however, showed some evidence in support of Bronfenbrenner's “physical versus psychological” hypothesis. Attempts were made to explain the results in terms of possible overriding and confounding effects of Confucianism and social changes.     

Trends in Same‐gender Sexual Partnering, 1988–1998

Nationally representative data from the General Social Surveys indicate that from 1988 to 1998 there was an increasing likelihood that American men and women had had a same‐gender sexual partner during the previous year. Increases in same‐gender sexual partnering and decreases in exclusively opposite‐gender sexual partnering during the previous 5 years were also evident among women over the 1988–1998 period. Same‐gender sexual partnering was found to be associated with age, birth cohort, race, size of hometown at age 16, and mothers’ education. The increase in same‐gender sexual partnering over the 1988–1998 period persisted after controlling for these factors. Several possible explanations for the trend are discussed.     

Producing change in attitudes toward abortion∗

This study examines several factors affecting reactions to persons identified as homosexual. Reactions are operationalized in terms of expressed rejection of the homosexual as indicated by responses to a social distance scale. The major variables examined are sex of homosexual, sex of reactor, and acceptance of two commonly held stereotypes. These stereotypes—perceived danger and psychological disturbance—both suggest that a sense of threat is associated with rejection of the homosexual. A particularly interesting finding was that male subjects are especially rejecting of male homosexuals. Presumably male subjects tend to view the male homosexual as a sexual failure and to perceive him as personally threatening or dangerous.     

Tuning‐in to Teenagers! Using Radio Phone‐in Discussions in Research with Young People

Since the 1990s, research with children has witnessed epistemological changes which have challenged traditional research methods and have attempted to deconstruct notions of children as passive and incompetent. Such changes, epitomized by children‐centred research methods, aim to redress power imbalances by encouraging participants to select their own forms of communication. Participation and innovation are central to this approach. Simultaneously, but quite distinct from research methodology, community radio has become an important mechanism in promoting social inclusion. Globally, this means of community participation has been advocated by organizations that have utilized radio as an educational tool for promoting children’s rights. This paper suggests that the synthesis of radio phone‐in discussions with the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’ forms a constructive basis for developing a participatory research method. Methodological issues arising from a teenage‐centred radio phone‐in will be explored. The paper concludes by discussing the viability of the radio phone‐in as a meaningful method for promoting teenagers’, often unheard, voices.     

Staging the world in late‐qing China: Globe,nation, and race in a 1904 Beijing opera

This essay takes the first Beijing Opera of China's early twentieth‐century reformist opera movement as an exemplary text and performative context through which to analyze the production of a new historical consciousness in late‐Qing China (1895–1911). Performed in Shanghai in 1904, the opera is centrally concerned with the modern partition of Poland. The essay argues that the opera's interpretation of history is a deliberate intervention into China's turbulent socio‐political atmosphere and helps mark an attempt to popularize through performance a new synchronic global consciousness that links China's contemporary history to the non‐Western world of global transformation at the turn of the twentieth century.     

The sexuality scale: An instrument to measure sexual‐esteem,sexual‐depression,and sexual‐preoccupation

This article describes the development of the Sexuality Scale, an instrument designed to measure three aspects of human sexuality: sexual‐esteem, defined as positive regard for and confidence in the capacity to experience one's sexuality in a satisfying and enjoyable way; sexual‐depression, defined as the experience of feelings of depression regarding one's sex life; and sexual‐preoccupation, defined as the tendency to think about sex to an excessive degree. The procedure involved (a) item construction, selection and subsequent validation through item analysis; and (b) a factor analysis of the items on the Sexuality Scale and the establishment of factorial validity. The results indicated that the three subscales were psychometrically sound, that males reported more sexual‐preoccupation than did females, and that the three subscales have unique intercorrelation patterns. The exploratory nature of these findings are discussed.     

Culture,memory, and structural change: explaining support for “socialism” in a post-socialist society

Two decades ago, East European state socialism met with a paradoxical fate. Between 1989 and 1991, communist party hegemony was abolished, leaving the very idea of socialism permanently discredited—or so it seemed. Yet in the decade that followed, “socialistic” principles and practices would retain—or perhaps acquire—a surprising degree of popular appeal. Was this a cultural legacy of systematic indoctrination? A strategic response to material insecurities? Perhaps a combination of both? In this article, it is argued that many previous efforts to unravel the paradox are inadequate because they ignore both the “strategic” dimensions of culture and the cultural dimensions of instrumental reason. Using life-history data on the former East Germany, it is shown that apparently discredited ideologies can acquire renewed salience in the wake of regime change if they (1) remain culturally available as strategies of action that (2) provided material opportunities or symbolic privileges in the past, and (3) promise to ameliorate new problems engendered by alternative strategies.     

Continuity and change in the regional stereotypes of southern college students, 1970–1987

This article examines the effects of the race and Hall of Fame membership of professional football players on the value of their “rookie” football cards. Several studies have examined the impact of race on the value of baseball cards, but only one paper has examined this topic among football card collectors. Data were derived from 177 black and white football players who are members of the NFL Hall of Fame or who have been on the final voting ballot for the Hall. All of the players in the sample started their careers after professional football became racially integrated. Data for each player's race, value of their rookie card, card availability (scarcity), performance, Hall membership, and position were obtained from secondary sources. The principle finding of the study is that when controlling for factors such as position, performance, and card scarcity, race applies an independent effect on the value of the rookie cards of NFL Hall of Fame members, but not among non-Hall of Fame cards. Speculation on why “race matters” and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Liberty,slavery, and the transformation of British identity in the eighteenth‐century West Indies

This article challenges the notion that black militias were of little consequence in the antebellum United States. The establishment, personnel and equipment of these militia units, and their importance for local black organization, has largely escaped scholarly attention. The significance of armed companies of young black men at a time when they were not officially sanctioned by federal and state authorities has also not been explored.

The article makes three arguments. First, there was a trajectory towards militarization from vigilance committees to independent companies to enrolment in union armies. Second, links between self-defence and rights of citizenship were already being struggled over at local and state levels before the more famous national expression in black union soldiers fighting for the union. Third, national narratives concerning the origins of the American civil war, African American slavery, and British Canadian history, obscure the multiple roles played by people of African descent during this period. It is only through transnational approaches towards fugitives, military formation and antislavery mobilization that we realise the role of blacks in challenging American slavery in the Atlantic world.

The organization of the article is as follows. It begins with fugitives and the organization of vigilance committees of self-defense in North America. It continues with states rights of self-defence, the exclusion of black men from these rights, and the resulting organization of independent companies. The public parade of these black militias on West India Day, the most important commemoration by Americans of African descent between the early 1830’s and 1860’s, is the next section. It concludes with the continental destruction of American slavery and its consequences for the post-emancipation era.

This article has several objectives. It examines important black institutions hitherto unexamined. It aims to broaden the conventional temporal and spatial dimensions of the civil war era. The third task is to reveal the limitations of nationalist narratives by seeking out connections among people of African descent as well as in the ways in which individuals and organizations provide alternative means for comparison. Finally, this article is part of a broader project examining political mobilization against slavery in the Atlantic world.     

Ethnic,gender, and length‐of‐residency influences on sexual knowledge and attitudes

We examined potential differences in sexual knowledge and attitudes between 702 Canadian undergraduates of Asian (n = 356) and European (n = 346) ancestry. We also examined potential influences of length of residency in Canada on these variables among Asians, and the role of gender both across and within ethnic groups. The primary purpose was to examine whether length of exposure to North American sexual values influences sexual knowledge or attitudes among Asians living in Canada. Results revealed that compared to Europeans, Asians held more conservative sexual attitudes and demonstrated significantly less sexual knowledge. Recent Asian immigrants were significantly more likely than Canadian‐born or long‐term Canadian residents to hold conservative sexual attitudes on a number of sexuality items. Among Asians and Non‐Asians, males reported more negative attitudes toward homosexuals than did females; females held more conservative sexual attitudes toward uncommitted sexual relations than did males. The findings provide partial support for a cultural explanation of the frequently reported finding that, compared with North Americans, Asians are more restricted in their expression of sexuality.     

A Multi‐Program Collaboration in Field Education

This paper describes the development of a US‐based field education collaboration among three social work programs that includes: field instructor orientation, continuing education for field instructors, an advisory board, a joint website and database, a field instructor manual and selected joint forms. Benefits, challenges, considerations and strategies will be offered for programs that wish to embark on similar projects.     

Baby booming inequality? Demographic change and earnings inequality in Norway, 1967�C2000

In this paper, we demonstrate how age-adjusted inequality measures can be used to evaluate whether changes in inequality over time are due to changes in the age-structure. To this end, we use administrative data on earnings for every male Norwegian over the period 1967–2000. We find that the substantial rise in earnings inequality over the 1980s and into the early 1990s, is to some extent driven by the fact that the large baby boom cohorts are approaching the peak of the age–earnings profile. We further demonstrate that the impact of age-adjustments on the trend in inequality during the period 1993–2000 is highly sensitive to the method used: While the most widely used age-adjusted inequality measure indicates little change in inequality over this period, a new and improved age-adjusted measure suggests a decline in inequality.     

Teacher‐Pupil Interaction in Bulgarian Romani Classrooms

The aim of this paper is to present the manner in which teachers and pupils interact in Bulgarian primary schools that are characterised by Roma attendance. For this purpose research was conducted with three groups of Roma children — Romani‐speaking, Turkish‐speaking and Romanian‐speaking children, who live in different parts of Bulgaria. The research results showed that teachers use more or less the same oral instructions, approaches and methods for introducing Bulgarian to Roma children as they do for teaching Bulgarian to children who have Bulgarian as their mother tongue. The teachers fail to take into consideration the limited knowledge that Roma children have of the Bulgarian language and expect the children to understand their instructions. There are no special methods or approaches for introducing Bulgarian to Roma children that take into consideration the fact that they are bilingual, and they cannot be taught in the same manner as monolingual Bulgarian children.     

Space to grow: Copyright,cultural policy and commercially‐focused music in China

A difficult copyright environment, combined with the Chinese government's continuing power over key distribution and promotion channels, including radio, television, publishing and concerts (Baranovitch, 2003 Baranovitch, N. 2003. China's new voices: Popular music, ethnicity, gender and politics, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.  [Google Scholar]; Brady, 2006 Brady, A. 2006. Guiding hand: The role of the CCP central propaganda department in the current era.. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 3(1): 57–76.  [Google Scholar]), have been key factors in the failure of international labels to secure a dominant position in China's rapidly developing domestic music market. This paper argues that while international record labels have been paralyzed by concepts of value that depend on an ability to control the copying of music products and to enforce intellectual property rights (Montgomery & Potts, 2008 Montgomery, L. and Potts, J. 2008. Global reuse and adaptation in the creative industries: Three further arguments against intellectual property based on lessons from China.. Dynamics of Institutions in Europe Working Papers, 59 Retrieved July 27, 2008 from http://www.dime‐eu.org/working‐papers/wp14/59#attachments [Google Scholar]), domestic music and entertainment businesses are actively exploring strategies that allow them to function in a weak copyright environment. Cultural policies ostensibly intended to prevent the circulation of heterodox content are having an important side‐effect: making it more attractive for music‐related businesses to promote and distribute local content. As a result, domestic music and entertainment businesses are developing a distinct advantage in the highly competitive Chinese market.     

‘Counterurbanization’, interaction and functional change in a rural amenity area — A Canadian example

Recent explanations of population and economic change in rural communities in Canada, the United States, the British Isles and Australia are described and assessed. These are synthesized and evaluated in the south Georgian Bay area at the outer edge of Toronto's urban field. Custom census tabulations of data on migration, commuting and population change from 1971 to 1991 documented rapid population growth, a major increase in the elderly, significant migration from metropolitan centres and primarily local work-residence linkages in the study area. Much of the population increase occurred in residential nucleations with amenity attractions along the shoreline. Information from business directories was used to trace economic change. Many businesses formerly found in small rural service centres have centralized in larger communities, but new economic activities related to tourism, construction, finance, services, manufacturing and wholesaling replaced them in numerous settlements. Population continued to increase in places that had lost some or all of their businesses. Population growth and economic change may be attributed to local amenity attractions, location in an urban field, the ‘commodification of rurality’ and structural transformations in the economy. Deconcentration from the ‘Golden Horseshoe’ contributed substantially to population growth in the study area which appeared to be a ‘clean break’ from the Toronto area.